Practice turning letters into words with Whack-a-Word (Reading Horizons, 2013). The setting: a garden with a row of carrots in front and a spate of moles popping up, whack-a-mole style, behind them, each holding a placard with a letter. Your mission: to tap the moles holding the letters you need to spell words, and thus […]

An example of the spare beauty of mid-century design, Barbara and Ed Emberley’s The Story of Paul Bunyan (originally published in 1963 by Prentice Hall; new edition AMMO Books, January 2015) is illustrated with woodcuts and printed in two colors — woodsy brown accented with a bright blue befitting Paul’s beloved ox, Babe. The story […]

What a thrilling ALA Annual conference this year in San Francisco (so we hear…). We hope you were able to pick up a copy of the July/August Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: Awards. If not, it’ll be in your mailbox soon. If not? Subscribe to the Magazine, for goodness sake! In this Special Issue you’ll […]

While you wait with bated breath for next week’s ALA Annual conference — and the July/August Horn Book Magazine containing the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, and Wilder awards speeches and profiles of the winners, plus roundups of the year’s books, our Mind the Gap Awards for books that didn’t win at ALA, and more […]

We are so thrilled about today’s marriage equality ruling! To celebrate, here’s a round-up of some of our resources on LGBTQ children’s books and book creators. 5Q for Stonewall author Ann Bausum “Transformers: Reimagining the World” by author Malinda Lo “Five Gay Picture-Book Prodigies and the Difference They’ve Made” by Barbara Bader “The Difference that […]

Last night, a bookstore dear to my heart hosted an author dear to my heart. And my heart was glad. To put it another way, Brookline Booksmith hosted Judy Blume in conversation with Tom Ashbrook at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. The event was in honor of her new adult novel, In the Unlikely Event, but […]

As the TinyHands Raccoon Treehouse app (TinyHands, 2013) opens, you’re greeted by a raccoon, gently bobbing in the air, balloons attached to his suspenders. Hit the “play” button and you’re brought down to the base of a tree (past tunnels and living quarters burrowed into the trunk) where there are a number of games to […]

The Little Mouse Santi, with a story by David Eugene Ray and illustrations by Santiago Germano, is a classic-feeling picture book for young readers. In it, the main character, a mouse named Santi, wants to be a cat. He studies the farm cats and copies their activities and attitudes until he has the whole cat […]

With our “grownup” coworkers variously attending conferences, working from home, or out sick (get better soon, Lolly!), Siân, Shoshana, Katrina, intern Willa, and I are having a Millennials’ Day in the Office. There might be some Taylor Swift happening. A (short-lived) book fort definitely happened: (Shoshana is a good sport.)